From plastic electronics to paper electronics

Paper-based, inexpensive sensors could make medical diagnostic tests more accessible.

Plastic electronics started in the 90ies as a way to create flexible circuits that can adapt to a variety of surfaces, from wearable to body implants. The idea was to use a polymer (plastic) as a board and the main obstacles were to find ways of anchoring the electronic parts in ways that did not destroy the polymer (most of electronic components construction involves heat at temperature that would melt the polymer) and that could resist the polymer deformation and still work.